Covid-19 pandemic triggers carbon crash

Global CO2 emissions are expected to fall by 2.6 billion tonnes in 2020, a reduction of eight percent, as the coronavirus pandemic causes the biggest ever drop in demand for fossil fuels


GLOBAL ENERGY-RELATED CO2 EMISSIONS, 1900-2020
(Billion tonnes of CO2)

IEA director Fatih Birol warns decline could be easily wiped out if governments do not support clean energy in new economic stimulus packages once Covid-19 is brought under control

2020 forecast: 30.6bn tonnes.
Reduction of 2.6bn tonnes is six times larger than fall of 0.4bn tonnes recorded in 2009 financial crisis

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020


ANNUAL CHANGE OF CO2 EMISSIONS

Spanish flu
Great Depression
World War II
1st oil shock
2nd oil shock
Soviet Union collapse
Global financial crisis

Covid-19 pandemic

2 1 0 -1 -2 -3


Pictures: Getty Images
Sources: Bloomberg, IEA
© GRAPHIC NEWS